Beneath the Porcelain Mask
by bloomsburry
Summary: 15 yrs ago,they became friends and 15 yrs later they became mortal enemies.She was an Anbu Medic and he was an S-class Nukenin.When they meet,long forgotten memories resurface.But this time their friendship could not stop them from achieving their goals.


**Disclaimer:** ........I don't own Naruto and that is the sad truth :(

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**Important Note: **If you haven't read 'Itch', please read it first before you proceed to this other sequel.

**Full Summary: **

15 years ago, they became friends and 15 years later they became mortal enemies.

She was an Anbu Medic and he was an S-class missing-nin

They were different and yet the same.

When they meet, long forgotten memories resurface.

But this time their friendship could not stop them from achieving their goals.

She wanted him to pay for what he did to Sasuke and his family.

He wanted to survive so that he can die in the hands of his brother.

Both had worn a mask of deception as they battled.

But when their mask had finally broken.

Both showed regret of the friendship that they once had... and still have until now.

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_Friends are together when they are separated,_

_They are rich when they are poor,_

_Strong when they are weak,_

_And—a thing even harder to explain---_

_They live on after they have died,_

_So great is the honor that follows them,_

_So vivid the memory,_

_So poignant the sorrow._

----**Cicero**

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"**Beneath the Porcelain Mask"**

**Friendship/ Tragedy**

**Itachi/Sakura**

**Alternate Universe  
**

**Rated T**

**Chapter 1**

**---------------**

"**Itch,"**

Shards of irreplaceable pieces fell from the mask, fierce emerald orbs glaring as the porcelain mask peeled off piece by fragile piece. Each fragment subsequently revealing smooth skin and a face that momentarily stunned the man, who was clutching the woman by the throat.

Itachi stared; his hand loosening slightly. Glaring emerald eyes held his eyes captive while he suffered bouts of nostalgia.

The flood of familiar memories ceased as his cold mask slide back into place, allowing no room for bitter emotions and lack of restrain.

Control took over his resurfacing emotions and became apathetic to the woman, who he had had met before in a chance encounter; though their situation was far from the congenial atmosphere since he had last seen her.

Perhaps it was because of their different status.

He was an S-class criminal while she was an Anbu.

They were different.

Yet he did not know how far off they were.

Years had irrevocably changed them. He was no longer that boy she had met before. His soul was already tainted while hers was no better.

Killing intent crackled around them, creating a still silence that could only mean death to one of them.

Itachi was not going to be that person.

He had other purpose to fulfill, and seeing her doesn't change anything.

"Uchiha.." Violent contempt and indispensable anger radiated from the woman's entire frame as she dug her sharp nails on his hand.

"Die!"

He felt her chakra rushed towards her fingers and without a moments pause he released her throat instantly before she could do damage to his hand.

The woman coughed, holding her neck.

Itachi kicked her on the stomach, not giving her time to recover and watched as she slammed into a tree, knocking her breath away.

She gasped for air.

With incredible speed, he was upon her. But the woman, sensing his approach, moved away just as he drew his katana out. .

She stumbled, her foot snagging the gnarled of the tree and Itachi spun towards her.

He attacked, his katana slicing the air and towards her. Cold blank eyes watched as his katana sunk into flesh and bones, and into the woman's heart.

Emerald eyes stilled then widening in surprise as he slide his katana deeply into her heart; an unperturbed look on his face.

The woman's eyes dimmed. Death hangs over her as she became limp.

Blood was trickling down from the corners of her mouth while he stared at her in silent detachment.

The woman slumped over, her dead weight heavy on his buried katana.

He flung her away and didn't glance at her as she hit the tree.

Then he waited.

The puffing sound behind him did not go unnoticed as the clone disappeared.

The scent of autumn that mingled with the soft wind blew against him, carrying a distinct flowery smell, apparently from the woman who was hiding behind a tree.

He could hear her heavy breathing even from where he was standing.

And hearing her breathless excited him.

The thrill of a worth hunt made his blood rush.

His nature to succeed and to see the battle to the end propelled him towards her hiding position.

She had not gone far from hence she had made her clone.

He had allowed her to escape from him once, but this fight was inevitable, he knew why she had come.

And for that he would give her what she was seeking for.

A true fight.

But not his death as what she had vowed when she had left her Anbu team and chase after him.

Kisame would handle the others while he would face her.

He wanted to test how strong she had become after he had heard the news of Sasori's unexpected defeat.

Detached and completely unfeeling, and after having caught her scent, he moved with a speed and agility that rivals even the lightning.

And like any harbinger of destruction and flashed of electricity, the tree cracked as the force of his katana made an angry scratch appear in the tree where the woman had been and use the tree as her fortification.

The area of the scratch burst into flames as his fire nature fiercely pulsated from the katana.

His Akatsuki cloak swirled sharply as he whirled around and leap after the woman.

The branch bends under his weight as he followed her.

His blind speed momentarily quelled as he watched her. Summoning every detail about her brute strength and intelligence that was stored in his long term memory, as well as the updates about her many accomplishments.

Underestimating his enemy had never been in his nature, and now was not an option.

Haruno Sakura was a force to be reckoned with as what he had heard for the past years.

But rumors about her were not something Itachi did not take seriously.

Some of them might be exaggerating though he could not be sure.

He would have to watched her closely and garner his opinions from what he could gain from this fight.

Suddenly, the air around him crackled, the woman turn towards him, flipping in mid air to land on a branch.

Emerald eyes were bright with unfaltering determination and he watched with curiosity as she slammed her hands together to form a seal.

A seal that he had never seen before.

He tensed and prepared for an attack.

However, he never saw it coming after that.

"Mekurumeku: Jishu no Hikari,"

Cage of blinding light rushed towards him all of a sudden, the blazing white light captured him and his entire body suddenly felt like it was being stabbed by thousands of invisible needles.

He could not see except for the blinding light wrapped around him.

He could not hear but a buzzing sound coming from somewhere.

He was rubbed of his senses that made him invincible and the only thing he could feel was the excruciating pain.

The sense of being vulnerable suddenly overcomes him.

Then as fast as the light that rushed towards him, the light disappeared and darkness came. But the pain remains with him.

Feeling agitated and extremely vindictive, he tried to activate his sharingan. Yet to his utmost dismay, he could not feel his chakra rushing towards his eyes as if something was blocking his optical nerves to receive his chakra.

He was furious.

And that was Sakura saw in his face when she advanced towards him with her katana raised; a vengeful and unforgiving look painted on her pallid face as she runs her katana on his still form.

The light would shortly disable him incapable of sensing her attack, and Sakura took advantage of the situation before he regains his eye sight and his other senses.

But as if he could still feel her deadly intent, he move to side as her katana aimed towards his heart.

His instinct was still as strong as before, Sakura deduce as her katana sheared his Akatsuki cloak while he moved away from her.

She could not easily defeat him even if he was on that state.

She simmered with repressed violence and she swung her katana back towards him, the blade glinted eerily as it wiped against the air, and sliding smoothly against cloth and skin.

Droplets of blood steak down her katana as she made another cut across the criminal's upper torso. The Uchiha barely even blink as she wounded him.

Her katana swiped towards him again, hardly registering the blank eyes that flared with awareness and intense wrath.

She froze instantly once her wrist was seized by his strong grip, her katana a scant away from cutting his head off and Sakura felt twinges of trepidation as she realized that she was the one at the disadvantage now.

She had used great ounce of her chakra to produce that genjutsu attack and there was scarcely enough left to kill the Uchiha.

She had missed her chance to kill him; tremors of fear run up and down her spine as she stared into Itachi's sharingan; the black tomoes whirling ominously.

She was transfixed and could not escape on time as Itachi's sharingan turn to Mangekyo.

She began to quake with imperceptible fear while she belatedly tried to escape from him.

Though she knew it was too late as Itachi said the words that mounted her fear and turn it to terror.

"Tsukuyomi,"

She heard him say before she descended into the realms of torture and nightmare.

Her whimpers of torment went unheard except for her tormentor; the heartless man who she had vowed to kill and the caring friend that she had forgotten along time ago.

But it was best for both of them.

Sakura was unstoppable when revenge blinded her.

She had lost the two people she loved.

Sasuke had defected to Orochimaru to be used as the snake-sannin's vessel while Naruto had been comatose for a long time after she had extracted the jinchuuriki from him.

While both her shishou and sensei died during Pein's attack 5 years ago.

She was alone and had allowed darkness to consume her soul.

She would not be at peace once she had her revenge; to eliminate the Akatsuki Organization that brought many deaths to her Village.

And she had started with Sasuke's brother.

But her plans went and about turn and left her to deal with a spiteful Uchiha.

When she was drawn inside Itachi's Mangekyo she found her hands and feet restrain by thorny vines, cutting against her wrist and ankle.

She was lying in a bed of white roses while Itachi stood over her with a black katana in his hand.

Sakura did not struggle against her restrain, nor did she try to ask for her to be release.

She was cool and reserve as can be.

She already knew that pleas did not work on the Uchiha and struggling would just weaken her.

The only rational option she could do was wait for the torture to end and mentally fight for freedom.

This was only a genjutsu and she had practiced to raise her metal barriers to resist many genjutsus.

She was grateful that she had been prepared for this. A seal that she had developed had been placed on her mind.

It would activate once she entered the genjutsu and she would use it to lessen the pain during the torture and at the same time, guard her mind from any mental probing.

Since Itachi's Mangekyo was strong, the mental seal would last for short time than its usual time span. It will only depend on how long Itachi would make her stay in his genjutsu.

Sakura looked calmly up at him, but deep down fear was eating at her. Even though Itachi's withdrawn face did not give room for any emotion, she had this thought that he already know that she was only showing a brave face when she wasn't brave to what he had prepared for her.

Lying there on the bed roses, Sakura assume nothing too gentle and nothing adversely tender as expected from a Clan murderer.

Sakura had pictured the Uchiha to be sickeningly sadistic and her views of him hadn't change at all since she was brought to that garden of hell.

There was no benevolent grain in Itachi's body that would befit to the place she was brought to.

Itachi had painted the picture of peaceful place where she could see the flowers, smell their scent and feel their lumps underneath her.

It was a sickening combination between a sadistic enjoyment and torture.

"I haven't got all day, Uchiha." Sakura finally said after she gotten vexed during Itachi's seemingly infinite silences and impassive stare.

She wanted to murder him.

"Are you going to torture me or not?"

Itachi considered her for an intent moment before moving his katana.

Sakura immediately tensed.

"Haruno Sakura," the tip of the blade pointed at her neck while Itachi spoke to her in his most lilting voice that riled Sakura to the end.

"You will be here for 5 weeks of endless torture,"

The way he said it made the hair on the back of her neck rise. She went cold as she felt the blade slide almost painfully against her skin, but not drawing blood.

Itachi was bidding his time to torture her.

After all she was going to be there for 5 whole days.

The tip of the blade slide up her chin and hovered there while her gaze into pairs of aloof onyx orbs.

She stared up at him, her eyes shining with unbending defiance; not giving up so easily.

She was not going to let him scared her out of her wits. 20 seconds had lapsed and still they stared at each other, Itachi let his katana hover above her chin making her aware how blunt it was that it could easily prick her if she dared move.

Then the vines tightened around her wrist and ankles, the thorns pricking into her skin and drawing blood.

She did not wince in pain.

Ruby droplets stream out from her wound and into the white roses, staining it with crimson. The color exquisite against the paleness of the fragile flower and slowly it turn into a red rose.

7 white roses became red while Itachi drew his katana away from her skin and loomed over her Anbu gear where her vital organs were protected by the armor.

Itachi looked at her before plunging the katana into her, stabbing her, then forcing the katana all the way through her.

A groan of pain lodged in her throat while she grimaced, her hand curling into pain fist as blood profuse from her fresh wound and into the white flowers strewn underneath her.

One by one they turn into red, absorbing her blood while Itachi slide his katana out, closely watching her, observing her reaction with an impersonal facade.

"That hurts," She grimaced as she felt the blade slide out from her, wincing. "But I am more assured that you would be suffering more than I am once I escape from this genjutsu,"

Itachi stared at her curiously, grasping the katana beside him while torrents of blood slide down from the blade.

"Because I would make sure that you see hell before I send you to the real inferno." Sakura hissed in both agony and hatred, baring the pain down while the man who loomed over her remain unmoved.

Then as if he hadn't heard her at all, Itachi sunk his katana back into her Anbu gear, aiming for her right lung.

A choke gasp was torn from her; her features crunching with pain as Itachi sink his katana deeply.

She started to wheezed, her lungs flooding blood while she coughed loads of it from her mouth.

"I swear to you, Uchiha." Sakura struggled to say, gasping for air while Itachi sunk his katana back into her, this time to her left lung.

"That I will kill you," Sakura swore with great equanimity, her eyes dark with disdain.

Itachi's response was just an enigmatic stare before stepping closely to her. Sakura tensed as Itachi bend down beside her, his hand putting more pressure into his katana.

Sakura swallowed her blood and tried to breathe shallowly, her eyes full of contempt as she viciously glared up at him.

He leaned forward, placing his lips beside her ear to whisper to her.

"No, you won't." Sakura went rigid with loathing, her face turning acidic as Itachi lean closely to her ear; his masculine mouth barely brushing her skin.

"Because I won't let you kill me." his breath fanning the tendrils of her hair and raising the hair from her neck.

With disgust and hostility blazing from her eyes, she struggled to free herself from the thorny vines and from the she solely abhorred, each jerk sending droplets of blood to cascade over the crushed flowers.

The roses turning a deep shade of ruby.

Then she bit her lip as Itachi twisted the katana, pain radiating from the wound. She coughed out blood while an involuntary tear fell from her eye.

The tear held Itachi's attention while Sakura was impervious to the emotion that fleeted from Itachi's face as the tiny droplet of tear fell into a pale petal.

Itachi watched as the white rose turn to a golden yellow.

The only flower that was different from the entire bed of red roses.

Itachi remain transfixed on it as his lips were drawn into a grim line; his face solemn for a moment before disintegrating like a cloud of dust before resuming back to his torture.

Itachi caught her gaze and stared.

Sakura glared, her entire frame emitting her total aversion towards him.

Itachi's face drew a complete blank as he took his katana.

A sharp jab went through his heart. Like a senbon was hurtled towards his heart and pricking him.

He recognizes what it was and he ignored it, like he had done when he had tortured his little brother, Sasuke. This was best for both of them. He would have to remain a criminal in her eyes and to the entire world to keep them safe.

He has his own purpose while she had hers, and allowing her to interfere with any of it would be both his end and the end for Konoha. He would sacrifice everything, even their past friendship and the love from his brother.

Like so many others before him, Itachi was just a pawn; a disposable weapon.

But he would do it for his own cause.

He would die saving his Village and his brother.

Or die trying.

His katana glinted malevolently as he raised it, his eyes locked into tumultuous pair of emeralds.

With a face devoid of any emotion, he stabbed her.

Her tortured face made him blink for a millisecond before his face became nonchalant. He continued on, every scream and groans that was wrenched from her, numb him.

He was heartless.

He was unfeeling.

He could not afford to be pitiful.

And by doing so would be his downfall.

He would not care--could not care for her.

That was his choice.

And her pain was nothing compared to the pain that he had endured after he had massacred his entire clan. Her nightmare did not come close to what he seen and suffered at the memories of that bloody night.

His hands were stained with the blood of his family, and spilling her blood looked seemingly irrelevant to what he had done many years ago.

It was a necessity that he torture her and failing to do so would make her less a monster in her eyes. And he would create that same illusion that he had used to Sasuke.

He would become something that Haruno Sakura would come to fear.

And he would erased any connections that he had with her.

At the age of 11, Itachi had stopped seeing her and had never come back for her after that. He knew that she would forget about him eventually, and it was a relief when she did.

Her memories about him would be better left off untouched.

It would be a hindrance if those memories would resurface again, for he knew that she would seek him out and question him about his actions that many years ago.

He did want to answer her, but above all, he didn't to evoke any doubt from her.

She might start questioning about his true personality and that, Itachi did not want to happen.

He needed to stop her from intervening with his plans, and her notion to eliminate all the remaining Akatsuki members; cease.

And with that purpose in mind, Itachi made a final and drastic decision.

He would strip her off her kunoichi powers.

And ascertain that she would never seek him again.

This would be their last encounter.

--

5 weeks had dissolved within the illusion, and his chakra precariously depleted. No sufficient amount left for him to defend himself from an anticipated enemy.

The woman remain unmoving as the illusion faded back to reality.

His eyes were slightly blurry and his optical nerves throbbed in pain, letting it turn back to sharingan with his gaze focused on the woman.

Her emerald eyes were dull and her form almost slumping as she fought to keep her balance. She swayed, her eyes looking at him weakly while the wind brushed against the soft locks that clung framed her heart-shaped face.

He stood there watching her; not moving an inch while he still grasp her wrist in his hand.

Her footing slip from the branch, she tip to the side and fell towards a 20 feet fall.

Without being aware of it, he tightened his grip on her while she grabbed hold of him. A cold hand reaching for his Akatsuki cloak as she hangs for dear life.

Her mind scarcely registering what she was doing as panic and fear for her life surface in her tortured mind. She hadn't to die in the genjutsu and not much less from a fall.

Black spots appearing in her line vision as exhaustion begin to wrapped its languorous tentacles over her. She was nearly unconscious as she tipped her head back to look at the man who held her life in his hands. Her vision slowly engulf with darkness but she knew that her expression had shown her thoughts.

She didn't want to die.

Though she didn't know for sure if she was alive after that when all she could see was pitch of darkness when she regain back her awareness.

She couldn't hear except a ringing sound in her ears.

She could feel any chakra flowing in her veins when she summoned her chakra to heal an ache in her head.

And above all the rising fright, the only thing that she could sense was the smell of the forest and the feel of grasses beneath her fingers.

The rest was nothing.

She tried to shout but she couldn't hear her voice.

She blink her eyes plenty of times to see what was before her. While the ringing in her ear didn't stop.

She had thought that it was another genjutsu.

But she had this nagging feeling that it wasn't.

And that was when hysteria sets in.

The realization of her vulnerability made its known to her.

She was blind.

She was deaf.

She could do nothing but feel and smell her way out from where she was.

She was no longer the capable and skillful kunoichi of Konoha.

She had been reduce to nothing.

Simply an impotent person.

Nothing could be better than death, and Uchiha Itachi had made her that way.

Worthless and useless.

Haruno Sakura wept.

Silent tears fell from her blind eyes while her soft sobs went unheard from anyone.

Not even her.

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**To be continued**

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**Finally, the other sequel to Itch. **

**Please Review!!!**

And tell me If you want me to make this a long multi-chapter or just 3 chapter story.

If you want it to be Romance or Just Friendship and Tragedy.

You decide.

If I go with the long multi-chapter. I warned you that there is a possibility that my updates will be long.

I really don't know how to make jutsu names so just please bear with me.

The translation for Sakura's genjutsu,_"Mekurumeku: Jishu no Hikari," _is_ **"**_**Dazzle:**** Light of Surrender**_**," **  
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